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Transvestism
in the late 19th century.]] Transvestism (also called transvestitism) is the practice of dressing and acting in a style or manner traditionally associated with the other sex. History Coined as late as the 1910s, the phenomenon is not new. It was referred to in the Hebrew Bible. The word has undergone several changes of meaning since it was first coined and is still used in a variety of senses. According to some sources, the term transvestite today is considered outdated and derogatory. Origin of the term Magnus Hirschfeld coined the word transvestism (from Latin trans-'', "across, over" and ''vestitus, "dressed") to refer to the sexual interest in cross-dressing.Hirschfeld, Magnus: Die Transvestiten. Berlin 1910: Alfred Pulvermacher Hirschfeld, Magnus. (1910/1991). Transvestites: The erotic drive to cross dress. (M. A. Lombardi-Nash, Trans.) Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. He used it to describe persons who habitually and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. Hirschfeld's group of transvestites consisted of both males and females, with heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual orientations.Hirschfeld, Magnus. Geschlechtsverirrungen, 10th Ed. 1992, page 142 ff. Hirschfeld himself was not happy with the term: He believed that clothing was only an outward symbol chosen on the basis of various internal psychological situations. In fact, Hirschfeld helped people to achieve the very first name changes (legal given names were and are required to be gender-specific in Germany) and performed the first reported sexual reassignment surgery. Hirschfeld's transvestites therefore were, in today's terms, not only transvestites, but a variety of people from the transgender spectrum. Hirschfeld also noticed that sexual arousal was often associated with transvestism. In more recent terminology, this is sometimes called autogynephilia. Hirschfeld also clearly distinguished between transvestism as an expression of a person's "contra-sexual" (transgender) feelings and fetishistic behavior, even if the latter involved wearing clothes of the other sex. Cross-dressers cross-dressing as a schoolgirl]] After all the changes that took place during the 1970s, a large group was left without a word to describe themselves: heterosexual males (that is, male-bodied, male-identified, gynephilic persons) who wear traditionally feminine clothing. This group was not particularly happy with the term "transvestism".Bullough, Vern L. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993. ISBN 0812214315 Therefore, the term "cross-dresser" (which has exactly the same meaning as "transvestite") was coined. Self-identified cross-dressers generally do not have fetishistic intentions, but are instead men who wear female clothing and often both admire and imitate women. This group did—and sometimes still does—distance themselves strictly from both gay men and transsexuals, and usually also deny any fetishistic intentions. It was probably this development that led to the explicit definition of transvestic fetishism as distinctively different from transvestism. However, when this group of people achieved public attention, they were commonly referred to as transvestites rather than cross-dressers. That led, paradoxically, to yet another usage of transvestism: cross-dressing, male-bodied, male-identified, heterosexual persons. This group typically self-identifies as "cross-dressers". When cross-dressing occurs for erotic purposes over a period of at least six months and when it causes significant distress or impairment, the behavior is considered a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the psychiatric diagnosis "transvestic fetishism" is applied. Culture In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional or ceremonial reasons. For example, in India some male devotees of the Hindu god Krishna, especially in Mathura and Vrindavan, dress in female attire to pose as his consort, the goddess Radha, as an act of devotion.Meet the crossdresser saints of UP. CNN-IBN. Retrieved 21 January 2013 In Italy, the Neapolitan femminielli (feminine males) wear wedding dresses, called the matrimonio dei femminielli (marriage of the femminielli), a procession takes place through the streets, a tradition that apparently has pagan origins.Il mondo del "femminiello", cultura e tradizione. TorreSette.it. Retrieved 21 January 2013 Image gallery File:Relief of Archigallus.jpg|Priest/priestess Archigallus of ancient Rome. File:El excluido.jpg|A 1927 photograph of Álvaro Echavarría ("El excluido") of Cúcuta, Colombia File:Teschenberg Hermann von (1866-1911).jpg|Baron von Teschenberg, a German transvestite, one of the founders of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee File:Baton Bob (cc).jpg|A modern American transvestite. File:Femminiello.jpg|A 19th-century photograph of a femminiello, an ancient culture of cross dressing in Naples, Italy File:West Side Tuna cast 1972.jpg|Seven men in a cabaret cast in Miami Beach in 1972, when two of them performed as women and three as transvestites File:Bridget_Guilty_Gear.png|An example of a fictional transvestite; Bridget of the Guilty Gear series. See also *Cogender *Cross-dressing *Drag (clothing) *''I Am My Own Wife'' *List of transgender-related topics *Transgender *Transsexualism *Travesti (theatre) *Dual-role transvestism *Transvestic fetishism Notes References * Ackroyd, Peter. Dressing up, transvestism and drag: the history of an obsession. Simon and Schuster, 1979. ISBN 0671250914 * Mancini, Elena. A Brighter Shade of Pink: Magnus Hirschfeld. ProQuest, 2007. ISBN 0549700552 * Ambrosio, Giovanna. Transvestism, Transsexualism in the Psychoanalytic Dimension. Karnac Books, 2011. ISBN 178049307X * Gravois, Valory. Cherry Single: A Transvestite Comes of Age (a novel) Alchemist/Light Publishing, 1997 (Available to read free, online), ISBN 0-9600650-5-9 Category:LGBT articles